Wednesday, 29 April 2015

He was born in Warsaw, Poland, into
a well-to-do merchant household. He
studied in religious primary school, secular high school, and later philosophy
and veterinary science at Warsaw University.
In his early youth, he was active in the Zionist youth organizations “Hashomer
Hatsair” (The young guard) and “Haḥiluk”
(Dissent). He worked for a time as a
teacher in a Hebrew high school in Warsaw.
In 1929 he left for Palestine and was one of the founders of Kibbutz
Hadera. He was also among the active
leaders in the administration of Kibbutz Artzi.
Over the years 1932-1935, he was in Poland, as an agent for Hashomer
Hatsair. He then returned to Palestine
and in 1948 he became active in Mapai (Workers’ Party in the Land of
Israel). In late 1948 he switched to
Mapam (United Workers’ Party) from Hashomer Hatsair and Aḥdut haavoda (Union of labor). His first publications were in Hebrew
serials: Hashomer hatsair and Du-shavuon (Fortnightly) in Warsaw
(1927). During the founding of the
Poale-Tsiyon daily newspaper Dos vort (The word) (Warsaw, 1933), he
served as a member of the editorial board.
His first publication in Yiddish appeared in Dos vort: “Privat-virtshaftlekhe
un khalutsishe kooperatsye” (Private economic and pioneer cooperation). He also contributed to: Dos naye vort
(The new word) in Warsaw (1933-1937); Naye-yugnt (New youth), Hamitspeh
(The watchtower), Badereḥ
(On the road) in Warsaw, and Idisher kemfer (Jewish fighter) in New
York. From 1938 he was a member of the
editorial board of Davar (Word) in Tel Aviv. Among his books: Sefer hashomrim (Book
of the guardians), editor (Warsaw, 1934), 538 pp.; Torat hamaase (Theory
of action) (Warsaw, 1933), 142 pp.
His pamphlet, Madua parashti mimifleget poale erets-yisrael? (How
I distinguish myself from the party of laborers in Israel) (Tel Aviv, 1948), 16
pp., aroused debates among Jewish workers in Israel. He was also editor of the Yiddish supplement to
the Hashomer Hatsair serial Heatid (The future) in Warsaw (1928-1932);
and of Sefer hashana shel haitonaim (The annual of newspapers) in Tel
Aviv. In late 1957 he visited Poland and
published in Davar a series of articles about the living condition of Jews
there.

He edited Yisroel un “der nayer links,” zamlhef
(Israel and “the new left,” a collection) (Tel Aviv, 1969), 139 pp.; and he
coedited Di yidishe prese vos iz geven
(The Yiddish press that was) (Tel Aviv, 1975).He was also the author of a series of books in Hebrew on general and
sociological-community topics.

He was born in Lodz, Poland, into an
elite Hassidic family. He studied in
religious primary school. In 1904 he was
sent to Jerusalem to study at the Torat Chaim Yeshiva. Later, he became a community leader. For a time he worked as a teacher of Hebrew. He was subsequently general secretary of the Vaad
Hachinuch ([Orthodox] board of education) in Jerusalem. He contributed articles to newspapers in Palestine:
Haor (The light), Hatsvi (The gazelle), Haḥerut (Freedom), Doar
hayom (Today’s mail), and Haarets (The land). He was the Palestine correspondent for Hazman
(The times) in Vilna, and from 1918 to 1934, for Lodzer tageblat (Lodz
daily newspaper). He published political
reports of matters of concern to Israel.
In 1937 he was working as a lawyer.
He was living in Tel Aviv.

He was born to well-to-do parents in
Grodno. He graduated from the Russian
Jewish teachers’ institute in Vilna in 1888.
He worked as a teacher in Russian Jewish schools, initially in Kovno and
Bialystok, later in Vilna. He was one of
the most active members of the first Jewish revolutionary socialist circles in
Vilna. In 1889 he was one of the leaders
of the first Jewish tailors’ strike in Vilna.
Under the party’s nickname for him, “Der lerer” (The teacher), he played
an enormous role in guiding socialist propaganda among Jewish laborers in
Vilna, as well as in the actual organization of study circles (kruzhki,
using the Russian word at the time), as well to systematize and prepare
appropriate teaching materials. His role
gained specially importance over the years 1893-1895, when the pioneering
“Group of Jewish Social Democrats,” together with L. Martov, who was then
undertaking revolutionary work in Vilna, decided to move the narrow work of their
circle to broader means of political agitation.
This kind of work had to be done in Yiddish, and Gozhanski was among
these pioneers the only person who had truly mastered the Yiddish
language. He therefore became one of the
principal creators of the first socialist labor literature in Yiddish. He also attracted young intellectuals to this
work, people who under his editorial hand wrote or translated various articles
and treatises on social themes. Of his
propaganda writings from this era, which he wrote under the pen name “Lonu” (he
was later known principally by this literary pseudonym), especially
distinguished was the historical importance of the brochure A briv tsu di
agitatorn (A letter to the agitators) (initially written in Russian), which
appeared in late 1893 or early 1894, as a practical, popularized addition to
the brochure of Aleksander (Arkadi) Kremer, Vegn agitatsye (On
agitation), which opened a new phase in the development of the entire labor
movement—not just the Jewish one—in Russia.
Other pamphlets by him that were quite popular include: A vikuekh
mitn mazl (A debate with good fortune), also called Din un yoysher
(Judgment and justice)—an agitation against the persuasive belief that wealth
and poverty are objects of luck or pure chance; A rede af purim (A
speech about Purim), an allegorical agitation against the Hamans of all eras; Di
iden frage in rusland far aleksander dem dritn (The Jewish question in
Russia for Aleksander III), also known under the title Der hesped (The
eulogy), “which was prepared on October 21, 1895,” a general political
agitation against Tsarism; Erinerungen fun a papirosn makherke (Memoirs
of a female cigarette maker), first published in 1928 in Unzer tsayt
(Our time) 7-8 (Warsaw); Di glikn fun ruvn dem berditsever (The joys of
Reuben from Berdichev), republished many times later with the title Di
skhires (Wages) (Vilna: Di velt, 1906), 76 pp., an analysis of labor wages,
based on numerous facts and figures (in compiling this pamphlet, contributions were
made by Pati Srednitski-Kremer and Liube
Levinson-Ayzenshtat); and a number of
other booklets. In 1896 he was exiled
for his revolutionary work to the Yakut region in Siberia, where he joined the
semi-anarchist, anti-intellectual movement of the Pole Jan Wacław
Machajski.
Returning from banishment in 1902, Gozhanski worked for a short time on
the central committee of the Bund in Warsaw, and he also contributed to the
Bundist Arbeter-shtime (Voice of laborers), but because of his anarchist
inclinations, he left their party activities and moved to Vilna where he worked
as a private teacher. Following the
Bolshevik Revolution, as an adherent of the right wing of the Social Democrats
(known as the Oborontses), he switched to the left, became a Communist, and for
a time was a commissar in Tula. He was
later recalled to Moscow, where he worked in the trade movement and took part
in editorial work on the first volume of the Yiddish edition of Lenin’s
writings. Rumors later emerged that,
during the show trials of 1936-1938, he was deported. His subsequent fate remains unknown.

Tuesday, 28 April 2015

He was born in St. Petersburg, and
at age three his parents brought him to Grodno.
He studied in religious primary school, later graduating from a secular
high school. In 1932 he moved to
Palestine and joined Kibbutz Glilim, near Haifa. The kibbutz sent him to the agrarian school
Mikveh Yisrael (Hope of Israel), from which he graduated in 1936. Afterwards, he went on a trip to see his
parents in Grodno. There he became
involved in illegal political work, was arrested, and sentenced to eight years
in prison. As a Palestinian citizen, he
was successful in 1938 in returning to Israel.
Back in Israel he became a surveyor and construction worker. In 1941 the British police arrested him as a
leading Communist, and after a year in prison he was freed. He published pamphlets, as well as stories
and many articles—in Yiddish and in Hebrew—in the press publications of his
party. Among his writings: Grodno
(Tel Aviv, 1945), 52 pp.—“in place of a gravestone” for his father, Yitzkhok
Gozhanski, a well-known lawyer who for many years was head of the community
council and a member of the city council in Grodno, and who was murdered by the
Nazis. From 1947 he made three trips to
Czechoslovakia and other Eastern European countries, with the aim of creating
assistance for the war of independence in the Yishuv in Israel. On his return home from Prague on the last of
these, he was killed when the airplane in which he was flying crashed in the Peloponnesian
Mountains. Shortly after his death, his
book appeared: Der mentsh hot gezigt (The man was victorious), “a
chronicle of a city,” with forewords by Sh. Mikunis and D. Sfard (Warsaw-Tel
Aviv, 1949), 220 pp.

He was born in Riga. He spent WWII in Memel (Klaipėda) and Kovno.
After the war, he was in Camp Feldafing near Munich and in Munich
itself. He published articles in the
survivors’ press, such as in Yidishe velt (Jewish world). He was the editor of camp newspapers: Dos
fraye vort (The free word) and Untervegs (Pathways)—in Romanized Yiddish.

He was born in Razhinilov [?],
Podolia region, Ukraine, into a merchant family, from which he received a
Jewish education. As a youth he
emigrated with his parents to Argentina and settled in the YIKO (Jewish
Cultural Organization) colony of Rivera.
He worked for several years as a farmer, later graduating from middle
school; he then studied to be and became a dentist, and was an active community
and cultural leader in Argentina.

He began writing poetry in 1909, and
his first publication appeared in 1912.
He contributed poems, stories, travel narratives, and feature essays to:
Tog (Day), Di prese (The press), Di gezelshaft (The
community), Dos idishe folksblat (The Jewish people’s newspaper), Di
pen (The pen), Dorem amerike (South America), Dos riverer
vokhnblat (The Rivera weekly newspaper), Far kleyn un groys (For
little and big), Morgn frayhayt (Morning freedom) in New York, and
others. He also published in the
socialist and syndicalist Spanish press in Argentina. His books include: Horizontn (Horizons),
sentimental prose on themes of love and nostalgia (Buenos Aires, 1927), 110
pp. He translated a number of items from
Russian and Spanish—among them, the drama Di zun fun der
menshheyt (The sun of humanity [original: El Sol de
la Humanidad]) by José Fola Igúrbide. He was living in Buenos Aires.

Monday, 27 April 2015

He was born in Lekhevitsh (Pol.
Lachowicze; Bel. Lyakhavichy), Baranovichi region, Poland. He received a traditional Jewish
education. He studied in the yeshivas of
Minsk, Kovno, Vilna, and Slobodka. He
was supposed to become a rabbi, but after his father’s death, he devoted
himself to learning Hebrew and secular subject matter. In 1894 he became a clerk in the Warsaw
synagogue library. That same year, he
began publishing correspondence pieces in Hamelits (The advocate) under
the pseudonym “Aguz.” In 1907 he became
a contributor to Hatsfira (The siren).
He was its night editor, writer of Warsaw local news, editor of
provincial news, and also the proofreader.
In 1908 he became an internal contributor and night editor of Warsaw’s Haynt
(Today), where he worked until the tragic end of his life. From 1917 forward, he edited the Warsaw local
news. In times of police persecutions,
when Haynt was confiscated, closed, and often had to appear under
another name and another editor, he was the editor of Tog-nayes (Daily
news). In 1938 he was on the managing
committee and supervisory council of the cooperative “Altnay” (Old-new), which
published Haynt on a cooperative basis.
During WWII, when the Germans occupied Warsaw, he remained in the Warsaw
Ghetto. He stood at the head of aid work
on behalf of Jewish writers and their families, who stayed in the Warsaw
Ghetto. He was taken during an Aktion in
the summer of 1942, and during the first planned deportation of Warsaw Jews (in
October 1942), he took potassium cyanide at Umschlagplatz (collection point in Warsaw
for deportation).

He was born in Telekhan (Telekhany),
Minsk region (later Polesia). His
father, Yisroel-Dovid, was religious man, engaged in scholarship, and for a
time a tenant innkeeper in the village of Vyade. Godiner received a traditional education,
studying Jewish subjects with his father, later under the influence of illegal
socialist literature, he was captivated by the revolutionary movement and was
one of the founders of the [youth movement dubbed the] Kleyner Bund (Little
Bund). At age fifteen, he and his
parents moved to Warsaw, where he became an apprentice in a locksmith’s
workshop. At age seventeen he began to
work in a metal factory. At the same
time, he devoted himself to acquiring an education on his own. He read great quantities of the Russian,
Polish, and German classics. In Warsaw
he also began to write poetry and stories.
He showed his writings to Peretz, and Peretz encouraged him to write
more. At the end of 1912, he was sent as
a recruit in the Tsarist army to the Caucasus, and in 1914 while traversing the
Carpathian Mountains on the battle front, he was wounded. In early 1918 he was captured by the
Austrians, but he was soon successful in escaping from their camp to Warsaw,
and from there he returned to Russia. He
remained for a short time in the army, and he later joined the Communist
Party. In 1921 he entered the Briusov
Institute for Literature in Moscow and studied there for two years. He initially wrote poetry (never published),
but from 1921 he wrote only prose. At
first, he wrote mainly about the war and Russian civil war, and in a
distinctive symbolist style. His first
story, entitled “Reges” (Moments), was published in Emes (Truth) in
Moscow in 1921, and later published as well in Shtern (Star) in Minsk,
Der shtrom (The stream), and other magazines and newspapers. He became one of the groundwork-layers of
Soviet Yiddish prose. He also wrote
dramatic works, translated many books from Russian, and compiled a literary
anthology. Gordiner went to Birobidzhan
on two occasions, and there he helped found Yiddish schools and libraries, and
to strengthen cultural work. Soon after
the Nazi invasion of Soviet Russia in the autumn of 1941, he left with the
partisans to fight. He returned to
Moscow in the summer of 1942 for a brief furlough. He returned to the back lines of the front,
and there he was killed. Among his books
are the following: Tog antkegn (Toward the day) (Moscow, 1924), 127 pp.;
Der mentsh mit der biks (The man with the rifle), a novel in two volumes
(Moscow, 1928-1933), several reprint editions; Figurn afn rand (Figures
on the edge), stories (Kiev, 1929), 251 pp.; Oys religyeI zamlung fun literatur (Out with religion! Literature
collection) (Moscow: Bezbozhnik, 1929), 56 pp., with A. Vevyorke; Dzhim
kuperkop (Jim Kuperkop), a dramatic pamphlet (Moscow, 1930), 151 pp.
(staged by Artef [Communist-inspired Yiddish theater] in New York); Kavkas
hersh (Hersh of the Caucasus) (Kharkov, 1933), 15 pp.; Verk, ershter band, dertseylungen (Works, vol. 1: stories) (Moscow:
Emes, 1933), 378 pp.; Muterland, roman
(Motherland, a novel) (Moscow: Emes, 1935), 480 pp.; Di akore fun rohatshev (The fortress of Rogachov), a story (Moscow:
Emes, 1936), 16 pp.; Di gliklekhe muter
elke (Elke, the happy mother), a story (Moscow: Emes, 1936), 48 pp.; Yudke komunareytshikl (Yudke, the little
communard), a story (Moscow: Emes, 1936), 48 pp.; Di heylike shklover levone (The heavenly Shklov [Szkłów,
Škłoŭ] moon) (1936); Der ershter (The first)
(Moscow, 1938), 12 pp.; A nakht bam
tseyln (A night counting), a story (Moscow: Emes, 1938), 11 pp.; Linishtsher yatn (Linishtsh guys), a
story (Moscow: Emes, 1939), 17 pp.; Der yontef fun frayndshaft (The
festival of friendship) (Moscow, 1939), 46 pp.; Andere mentshn (Other
people), stories (Moscow, 1940), 288 pp.
His work was included in: Deklamater fun der sovetisher
yidisher literatur (Reciter of Soviet Yiddish literature) (Moscow, 1934); Der arbeter in der yidisher literatur,
fargesene lider (The worker in Yiddish literature, forgotten poems)
(Moscow, 1939); the anthology Birebidzhan(Birobidzhan) (Moscow, 1936); Far der bine: dertseylungen, pyeses, lider (For the stage: stories, plays, poems), with
musical notation (together with Y. Dobrushin and E. Gordon) (Moscow, 1929); Bafrayte brider, literarishe zamlung
(Liberated brethren, literary anthology) (Minsk, 1939); Farn heymland in shlakht! (For the homeland in battle!)
(Moscow, 1941); Komyug, literarish-kinstlerisher zamlbukh ([Jewish] Communist Youth, literary-artistic
anthology) (Moscow, 1938); and Osher
shvartsman, zamlung gevidmet dem tsvantsik yortog fun zayn heldishn toyt (Osher
Shvartsman, collection dedicated to the twentieth anniversary of his heroic
death) (Moscow: Emes, 1940). His
translations include: Lidiya Seifullina’s Erd-zaft (Juice of the earth)
(Moscow, 1924), 158 pp., and her Virinyeya (original: Virineya)
(Moscow, 1925), 146 pp.; Fedor Gladkov, Tsement (Cement [original: Zement])
(Moscow, 1927), 334 pp.; Mikhail Rozanov, Kostya ryabtsevs togbukh
(Kostya Ryabtsev’s diary) (Moscow, 1928), 222 pp.; Yuri Oliosha, Kine
(Envy) (Minsk, 1931), 137 pp.; Maksim Gorki’s Klim sangins lebn (The
life of Klim Samgin [original: Zhizn’
Klima Samgina]) (Moscow, 1937). Godiner also compiled (together with Y.
Rabinovitsh) Af barikadn,revolyutsyonere shlakhtn in der
opshpiglung fun der kinstlerisher literatur (At the barricades,
revolutionary battles in the lens of artistic literature) (Kharkov, 1930), 300
pp.

He was born in Lemberg [other
sources give: Buczacz], and was by profession a lawyer. In 1907 he was selected to be a deputy to the
Austrian Reichsrat (Imperial council); he was also a Zionist activist, a
fighter for Jewish rights and for recognition of Yiddish and Hebrew, as well as
a speaker and writer on current affairs.
In Lemberg he contributed to Tagblat (Daily newspaper) and to the
Zionist Wschod (East), and editor of Przyszlosc (Future). He died in Vienna.

He was born in Zaloshen, Bessarabia,
and educated in the town of Vodroshkov.
He studied in religious primary school, later devoting himself to acquiring
his own education. From 1909 he was in
Argentina; he lived eight years in Buenos Aires and supported himself doing
physical labor. From 1918 he was an
employee in the Jewish agrarian cooperative of “Fondo-Komunal,” in the colony
of Domingez, Entre-Rios Province. From
1940 he worked with the headquarters of the agrarian cooperatives (“Fraternidad
Agraria”) in Buenos Aires. He was active
in Poale-Tsiyon, past head of the “Jewish Laboring Youth” association, a delegate
to the first Jewish cultural conference in La Plata in 1915, and a representative
to the first Jewish agrarian cooperative in Argentina in 1916. He was a leading activist in the Jewish
cooperative movement in Argentina. He
began his literary writings with dramas and stories. He wrote about cooperative and agrarian
matters. He was a regular contributor to
the journal Gezelshaft (Community) in Buenos Aires (1918). He later wrote for the yearbooks of the
Jewish community in Buenos Aires. In Yorbukh
tshi”d (Annual for 1953/1954) (Buenos Aires, pp. 113-32), he contributed: “Di
antviklung un der itstiker matsev fun der higer yidisher yik”o-kolonizatsye”
(The evolution of the contemporary situation of the local Jewish YIKO
colonization); in Yorbukh tsht”v (Annual for 1954/1955) (Buenos Aires),
he wrote “50 yor baron hirsh-kolonizatsye” (Fifty years of Baron Hirsch’s
colonization). He also contributed to the
D”r yarkhi-bukh ([Memorial] book for Dr. Yarkhi), edited by P. Bizberg
(Buenos Aires, 1953), a collection in Yiddish and in Spanish; and for Argentiner
yivo-shriftn (Argentine writings of YIVO) (Buenos Aires, 1942), he wrote “Di
yidishe agrar-kooperativn in 1928-1935” (The Jewish agrarian cooperatives in
1928-1935), and in its fifth issue, he wrote “Nit-yidishe meynungen vegn der
yidisher kolonizatsye in argentine” (Gentile understandings of Jewish colonization
in Argentina). He served as editor of Kolonist
kooperator (Colonist cooperative), organ of “Fraternidad Agraria.” He also authored the booklet: Vuhin firt
di oysvanderung fun dorf in shtot? (Where does emigration lead from village
to city?) (Buenos Aires, 1947), 24 pp. (reissued by Argentiner yivo-shriftn
in its fourth number). He died in Buenos Aires.

Sunday, 26 April 2015

This was the pen name of Arn Itkin,
born in Lodz, the son of the writer Leyb Itkin who was also a Hebrew
teacher. Gabid graduated from secular
high school and studied at Warsaw University.
Because of illegal political activities, he had to flee Poland. He left for Paris, where he graduated as an
engineer. He was an active leader in the
French Communist Party and a contributor to its press as a feature writer and
essayist. Because of Trotskyism, he was
expelled from the Party in 1934. He
returned to Lodz, worked in a factory, grew close to the Bund, and began to
write in Yiddish for Folkstsaytung (People’s newspaper) in Warsaw
(1935-1939); he also published in Inzl (Island) in Bialystok (1935-1939),
edited by Zishe Bagish, and for Nayer folksblat (New people’s newspaper)
in Lodz. When the Germans occupied Poland,
he left for the East, spent some time in Bialystok, later returning to Poland
where he lived until 1942 in a village in Galicia. Through the efforts of the underground
committee of the Bund, he was brought from there to Warsaw and was inside the
Warsaw Ghetto. In December 1942, he was
brought to Umschlagplatz (collection point in
Warsaw for deportation) and he perished.

He was born in Lodz and studied at a
religious primary school and a prayer house for Gerer Hassidim. In 1909 he began to acquire a secular
education. He founded Ḥevre meorere yeshanim
(Society to awaken the sleeping) with the goal of spreading secular education
among the lads in the synagogue study halls.
He took part in the drama section of Lodz’s Hazamir (The nightingale)
and acted in Hebrew theater. In 1920 he
published in Lodz, with Heshl Yedvab, Aḥdut-yisrael (Unity of Israel), a Zionist weekly
newspaper, in which he published his first articles on Zionist themes. In 1928 he was in Warsaw and published
articles in Yidishe hantverker (Jewish artisan). In
1930 he emigrated to Latin America. He
stayed for a short in Santiago, China.
From 1933 he was living in Buenos Aires.
He contributed to: Lodzher
folksblat (Lodz people’s
newspaper), Yidishe vokhnblat (Jewish weekly newspaper) in Santiago, Di prese (The press) and Der shpigl (The mirror) in Buenos Aires, Brazilyaner yidishe tsaytung (Brazilian Jewish newspaper), and others as
well. He wrote theater criticism and
feature articles. Among his books: Monish—nekht
haynt un morgn, a muzikalish stsenish peretsyade in dray aktn (Monish, yesterday, today, and tomorrow—a musically
staged Peretziana in three acts) (Buenos Aires, 1935), 72 pp.; Ven ben guryon iz antlofn (When Ben-Gurion escaped), a play in three acts
(Buenos Aires, 1953), 80 pp. He edited: Penemer un penemlekh (Appearances, big and small) (Buenos Aires, 1935);
Argentiner lebn (Argentine life), biweekly serial (Buenos Aires,
1954); Leksikon fun idishe
gezelshaftlekhe tuer in argentine (Handbook of Jewish social leader in Argentina), three volumes (Buenos
Aires, 1941-1943). In 1944 he founded
the publishing house “Yidish.” In 1952
he published in Rio de Janeiro Leksikon fun yidishe gezelshaftlekhe askonim
un kultur-tuer (Handbook of Jewish social workers and cultural leaders). He died in Buenos Aires.

He was born in Stolbtsy (Stowbtsy),
Byelorussia. Over the year 1895-1907, he
and A. Kotik published in Warsaw a series of popular science booklets which he
translated and adapted serially some by himself and some with Kotik. Bresler also published current events
articles in Hatsfira (The siren) and in Avrom Reyzen’s anthology Progres
(Progress). In the years after WWI, he
published two short works on ethics. His
name was well known in Warsaw in connection with his lending library of Jewish
and general literature. “Bresler’s
Library” at No. 5 Nowolipki was one of the first lending libraries in
Warsaw. Among his books: a summary
treatment of H. T. Buckle’s History of Civilization in England as Di
geshikhte fun tsivilizatsyon in england (Warsaw, 1895), 64 pp., second
edition (Warsaw, 1901); Dertseylungen vegn vilde mentshn (Stories about wild
people), translated from Dmitri Korobchevski (Warsaw, 1895), 44 pp.; Arbet
un capital (Labor and capital), translated from Aleksander Bogdanov
(Warsaw, 1895), 56 pp.; Vi hobn mentshn gelebt mit eynike toyzent yor
tsurik? (How did people live several thousand years ago?), translated
(together with Kotik) from Boris Pavlovich (Warsaw, 1895), 64 pp.; Yoysef
perl (Joseph Perl), a biography adapted from various sources (Warsaw,
1899), 42 pp.; Di mentshlekhe antviklung (Human evolution), translation
from P. Streissler (Warsaw, 1901), 66 pp.; Perets smolenskin (Peretz
Smolenskin), a biography (Warsaw, 1904), 64 pp.; Vegn tsienizm (On
Zionism) (Warsaw, 1905), 32 pp.; Vos darf men un vos kon men ton? (What
should and what can one do?) (Warsaw, 1906), 20 pp.; Robert Oven (Robert
Owen), translated from A. V. Kamenskii (Warsaw, 1907), 82 pp.; Gaystikeyt (Spirituality) (Warsaw,
1912/1913), 16 pp., using the pen name: Y. Yitskhaki. The last of this was a pamphlet critical of
Jewish nationalism. He died in Warsaw.

Her maiden name was
Gantsevitsh. She was born Lechovich
(Pol. Lachowicze; Bel. Lyakhovichi), Minsk region, Byelorussia. She attended a private high school for
girls. For a time she lived in Moisés
Ville, Argentina. She was active in
Hadassah and in the Mizrachi Women’s Organization. She wrote a book entitled Folk un land,
oyneg shabes fortagn (People and country, Friday afternoon reports), which
her husband, Menakhem Breslau, brought out after her death (Denver, Colorado,
1941), 202 pp.

He was born in Utyan (Utena),
Lithuania, and in 1923 he moved with his parents to Vilna. His father, Binyomin, a bookkeeper by trade, was
one of the early builders of the Yiddish school and culture movement in Vilna,
an active leader in the democratic Folks-partey (People’s party) and later in
Frayland (Freeland) league; and from time to time he wrote articles on
pedagogical issues in Vilna school publications and in Vilner tog (Vilna
day). His son received a secular Jewish
education, graduating from the “Mefitse haskalah” (Society for the promotion of
enlightenment [among the Jews of Russia]) school and the Sofia Gurevich High
School. In 1934 he entered the History
Faculty at Vilna University, and in 1937 he became a research student at
YIVO. He was a member of the Jewish
Scout organization “Bin” and a co-founder of the territorialist youth
organization “Shperber.” He wrote
articles on topical social issues for territorialist publications and for Vilner
tog under the pseudonyms: A. B., B. Arens, Solomontshik Aronoldi, and
Brestaun. During his university studies,
he worked on such major research projects as: “Yidn in poylishn oyfshtand 1863”
(Jews in the Polish uprising of 1863), “Gavriel riser” (Gabriel Riser), and “Etyudn
tsu der geshikhte fun der yidisher arbeter-bavegung” (Studies on the history of
the Jewish labor movement). His major
research work was on the subject: “Di yidishe prese in vilne” (The Yiddish
press in Vilna). He died, together with
his father, in the Klooga concentration camp in Estonia.

He was in the Kovno ghetto. Two poems of his remain extant: “Lebn” (Life”
and “Lid fun vesherai” (Song of the laundry).
In the latter, he described backbreaking labor in the ghetto laundry and
mentioned the names of the overseers and tormentors. His fate remains unknown.

He was born in Trisk (Turiysk), Poland.
He studied in religious elementary schools and in a yeshiva, later
graduating from the Jewish teachers’ seminary run by Tsisho (Central Jewish School
Organization). From 1929 he was living
in Częstochowa,
where he worked until 1933 as a teacher of Yiddish at the Peretz School and
lectured on Yiddish literature at the local branch of the Kultur-lige (Culture
league). From 1934 until the Nazi
invasion, he was a contributor to Taz [the Jewish health organization] and a
leader of the children’s colonies. In
the Częstochowa ghetto, he was one of the most active underground
anti-Nazi fighters. On January 15, 1945,
he was liberated from the Hasag concentration camp and among the first to start
building Jewish life in Częstochowa following the Holocaust. He served as chair of the Jewish committee
and one of the founders of the Jewish Cultural Association in Poland. He began publishing in the publications of
Tsisho, such as Shulvezn (School system), among others, contributed to
illegal Yiddish and Polish printing, and published articles in the revived Folkstsaytung
(People’s newspaper) in Warsaw, as well as in: Bleter far geshikhte (Pages for history), Dos naye lebn (The new life), and Yidishe shriftn (Jewish writings)—in Warsaw; Tshenstokhover yidn
(Częstochowa Jews) (New York, 1947); and he was regular contributor to Lebns-fragn (Life issues) in Tel Aviv. Among his books: Vidershtand un umkum in
tshenstokhover geto (Uprising and death in the Częstochowa ghetto) (Warsaw:
Jewish Historical Institute of Poland, 1951), 176 pp. He translated from Russian Der groyser rusisher shrayber n. v. gogol
(The great Russian writer, N. V. Gogol [original: Velikii russkii pisatel’ N. V. Gogol’]) by N. L. Stepanov (Warsaw,
1952); and from Polish Der alter doctor
(The old doctor [original: Stary Doktor])
by Ida Merżan (Warsaw, 1968). He
moved to Israel in 1958 and lived in Bet-Yam.

He was born in the tiny town of
Novo-Mliny, Chernihiv region, to poor, simple, laboring parents. He lived at his parents’ home until age
ten. He moved through a number of
different yeshivas, though he spent a longer period of time in the town of
Pochep, where he studied in the yeshiva of R. Heshl-Note Gnesin. Together with the son of the head of the
yeshiva, the subsequently well-known Hebrew storyteller Uri-Nisn Gnesin, he threw
himself into the study of modern Hebrew literature. Together they brought out a handwritten daily
newspaper, entitled Hakol (The voice), and a monthly journal, Haperaḥ (The flower), in
which he published his first compositions.
From Pochep he moved to Bialystok and studied with his uncle to be a
scribe of scrolls, tefillin, and mezuzot.
In 1897 he settled in Homel (Hamel, Gomel), where he met Z. Y. Anokhi
and Hillel Zeitlin. For a short time, he
worked as secretary for Mordekhai ben Hillel Hacohen. Zeitlin had a great influence on him, as both
men got along well. In Homel, he grew
close to the Bund and became editor (together with B. Kohen-Virgili) of its
local organ, Der kamf (The struggle).
After a short period of time being settled in Bialystok, he moved to
Warsaw, where he came to know Y. L. Peretz, Avrom Reyzen, and H. D.
Nomberg. He returned to Homel, where he
gave Hebrew lessons and campaigned on behalf of Zionism and socialism. In 1902 he once again moved to Bialystok, and
there he worked with Avrom Reyzen in Avrom Kotik’s publishing house of Bildung
(Education). In 1903 he was called to
military service, and he served for one year in Oryol. When war broke out between Russia and Japan
in 1904, he deserted from the army; he was caught and for a long time he was
stuck in a number of different prisons, until a group of Bundists beat off the
guards while they were conveying him from one prison to another. Brenner then made his escape to London. There he worked in the Poale-Tsiyon movement,
wrote for the Jewish Chronicle articles about Hebrew literature, and
while working as a typesetter in Y. Naroditski’s publishing house, he published
the journal Hameorer (The awakening).
In 1908 he left London and came to Lemberg, visiting other cities in
Galicia as well. He published articles
in Tageblat (Daily newspaper) in Lemberg and brought out the collection Revivim
(Showers).

In 1909 Brenner made aliya to
Israel. He settled, as a simple laborer,
in the colony of Ḥadera. From there he moved to Jerusalem where he
became one of the editors of Hapoel hatsair (The young worker). However, to realize his ideal of being a
farmer, he settled in Ein Ganim. There
he became acquainted with Aharon-David Gordon, the founder of the idea of “religion
of labor,” and later he immortalized him in his story Mikan umikan (From
here and there). From Ein Ganim he moved
on to Yafo (Jaffa), where he was active in the association Ḥoveve Habima Haivrit (Fans
of the Hebrew stage). A storm arose against
him when he published an article about Christianity. He was suspected of helping the
missionaries. His published answer and
the intercession on his behalf of well-known Hebrew writers put much of this
suspicion to rest. On the eve of WWI,
Brenner married. When the war broke out,
he took Turkish citizenship. For a short
time he worked as a teacher at the Herzliya High school in Tel Aviv, though
later he completely devoted himself to helping war refugees. In 1920 when Palestine was under British
occupation, he became a member of the Migdal camp of Gedud Haavoda (The Labor
Legion), assisted the highway workers by editing their serial publication Hasolel
(The paved road), and was one of the participants at the founding conference of
the Histadrut Haovdim (Federation of Labor)—Hanukkah, 1920—in Haifa.

An immense personality, packed with contradictions—Brenner
was the most tragic writer in our bilingual literature. In 1921 when he returned to Jaffa, he was
murdered by Arabs during the pogroms and buried in a joint grave with the pogrom
victims at the old cemetery in Tel Aviv.

Friday, 24 April 2015

She was in the Kovno ghetto. She published a poem entitled “Brekhn di
keytn” (Break the chains), in which she expressed the hope that “the world
would yet open its doors for us.” Her
subsequent fate remains unknown.

He was born in Stanislavov, eastern
Galicia, into a merchant household, received a Jewish education, graduated from
high school—and later from the law faculty of Cracow University—became a doctor
of law, and was a lawyer in various cities in Galicia and also in Vienna. He published sketches and poems in various
Polish Jewish and Yiddish serials in Galicia.
In 1915 he took over editorial duties for Vokhnblat (Weekly
newspaper) in Copenhagen, served as secretary there for the Auxiliary Committee
for Jewish War and Pogrom Victims, general secretary for the Scandinavian Jewish
Central Auxiliary Committee, and editor of Folks-hilf (Popular
assistance). In 1927 he founded Skandinavyen
yidishe korespondents (Scandinavian Jewish correspondence); and in 1924 he
published in Berlin the weekly Yidishe ilustrirte tsaytung (Jewish
illustrated newspaper). He died in
Berlin. Among his books: In shturem
fun lebn (In the storm of life), poems (Cracow, 1911), 80 pp.; Zumer-nekht
(Summer nights), stories (Cracow, 1912), 92 pp.

He was born in Batki Wielkie, Bialystok region, into a
family of timber merchants. He studied
in religious elementary school and yeshiva.
At age ten, he was already renowned in the area as a prodigy and as
proficient in Hebrew, Yiddish, and world literature. In 1914 he first published a story in Byalistoker tageblat (Bialystok
daily newspaper), edited by A. Sh. Hershberg.
After WWI, he became a contributor to Byalistoker lebn (Bialystok life),
edited by Peysekh Kaplan. In 1929 he
wrote for Dos naye lebn (The new life) in Bialystok. From 1931 he was on the editorial collective
of Undzer lebn (Our life) in Bialystok. In 1933 he was editor of Gut-morgn (Good
morning) in Bialystok. He published
stories in: Tog (Day) in New York; Di post (The mail)
in London; and Velt-shpil (World play) in Warsaw. In the 1930s he was awarded a prize for his
story “Iser der bukhhalter” (Iser the bookkeeper) in a short story competition in
the Forverts (Forward) in New York. In 1934 he traveled to Palestine and
published a travelogue in Byalistoker lebn.
Among his books: Undzer khoreve heym:
dertseylungen, bilder, reportazhn (Our ruined
home: stories, images, reportage) (Bialystok, 1936), 109 pp. In 1940, under Soviet dominion, he wrote for Byalistoker shtern (Bialystok
star) and was a proofreader for a Byelorussian railway workers’ newspaper. On June 19, 1941, he was arrested by the
Soviet authorities and thrown in a Bialystok jail. On Saturday, July 12, 1941 he and fifty other
Bialystok Jews were shot by the Germans.

He was the author of the following pamphlets
in Yiddish: Tsum kumendikn XV kongres (Toward the coming Fifteenth Congress)
(Jerusalem, 1926), 47 pp.; Iber di tetikeyt fun biker khoylim hospital in
yerusholaim in di teg fun di troyrike gesheenishn (On the activities of the
Biker Ḥolim
Hospital in Jerusalem in the days of the sad events) (Jerusalem, 1929), 40 pp.
(the pamphlet describes the pogroms in Palestine in 1929 and includes pictures
of the victims); Tsum klal yisroel: di geshikhte, tetikeyt un badaytung fun
di novorodker yeshive “beys yoysef” in land fun di oves (To all Jews: The
history, activity, and significance of the Novorodok Yeshiva in the land of the
forefathers) (Jerusalem, 1932), 32 pp., large format; A matone fun di
heylike land: zikhroynes iber erets-yisroel
far di letste 62 yorn un di geshikhte fun di yeshive “or zorea” in yafe-tel-aviv (A gift from the Holy Land: Memoirs of Palestine
for the last sixty-two years and the history of Or Zorea Yeshiva in Jaffa-Tel
Aviv) (Jerusalem, 1934), 16 pp., large format; and Iber der frage,
fun di elende hilfsloze alte un altinke in erets-yisroel (On the issue of
the miserable helplessness of aged men and women in the land of Israel) (Tel
Aviv, 1937), 32 pp.